Taso Lagos

Contact
- taso@uw.edu
- (206) 351-7495
- Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
About
I am an international communication and political media scholar, Lecturer at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies and Founding Director of the Greece Study Abroad Program. My research focuses on media history involving immigrants and members of the Greek diaspora, as well as on questions of digital democracy and nation-branding as an emerging form of nationalism. My work has a strong historical dimension, as it seeks to uncover past movements, alongside social exclusionary and integratory sentiments within Second Wave immigration involving Greek expatriates. It also explores current trends in the nationalist refractors of nation-branding as a purposeful means of patriotic and populist exploitation. My research on issues of digital democracy involves the creation of “parallel poleis” that expose alternative social and political institutions within the digitized landscape.
My monograph, American Zeus: The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theater Mogul (McFarland Press, 2018) explicates the pioneering work and extraordinary life of the Greek-born Alexander Pantages, who immigrated to America at a young age in the 1880s to become a powerful movie-theater mogul who shaped the growth of movie exhibition in North America. The book argues that the era of extraordinary migration into the U.S. between 1880-1924 was also a very fertile and expansive business period, one in which immigrants played an outsized role by, for example, single-handedly creating the Hollywood movie industry. Relying on extensive archival material and newspaper accounts, the book demonstrates that the press coverage of this contribution was not stable or consistent, refracted as it was through public opinion on immigration. Pantages was a victim of this fluctuating media discourse that eventually destroyed his empire and left him a tragic figure by the end of his life in 1936. My articles have appeared in the Journal of Modern Greek Studies; New Media & Society; The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; Journal of Communication, and Political Communication, among others.
Recent Interviews and Media Representations
Interview, UW Today, May 14, 2018
https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/05/14/jackson-schools-taso-lagos-pens-american-zeus-biography-of-theater-mogul-alexander-pantages/
Interview, Real Change, November 22, 2017
https://www.realchangenews.org/2017/11/22/seattle-s-homeless-soccer-team-plays-local-and-international-pitches
Interview, Whole-U, August 5, 2016
https://wholeu.uw.edu/2016/08/05/taso-lagos/
Interview KUOW-FM, April 21, 2016
https://m.kuow.org/stories/can-we-develop-u-district-without-losing-its-soul
Education
- University of Washington, Seattle, Ph.D., Political Communication, 2004
- University of Washington, Seattle, Masters, Communication, 1999
- University of Washington, Seattle, B.A., History, Russia Emphasis, 1980
Selected Courses
- COM 304 American Press and Politics
- COM 305 The Politics of Mass Communication in America
- COM 382 Social Scientific Approaches to Communication Research
- HCDE 505 Computer Assisted Communication
- JSIS 278 Diaspora Communities in Seattle & Beyond
- JSIS 303 The Real Cost of Food
- JSIS 478 Special Topics: Global Cities, Utopia, and the Environment
- JSIS B 305 Wall-E's World: Global Impact of Smart Technology
- JSIS B 307 Digital Storytelling and Global Citizenship
Selected Publications
Cooking Greek, Becoming American -Forty Years at Seattle’s Continental Restaurant
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
McFarland
Publication Date:
2021
Narrating Hellas -tourism, news publicity and the refugee Crisis's impact on Greece's ‘Nation-Brand’
Publication type:
Article
Co-Author(s):
Charanpreet Samra, Haley Anderson, Sydney Baker, Jasmine Leung, Arica Kincheloe, Brooke Manning, Dylan Olivia Tizon, and Helena Gabrielle Franchino
Published in:
Journal of Tourism History
Publication Date:
2020
Charisma and Religious War in America -Ministries and Rivalries of Sister Aimee and “Fighting Bob”
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Publication Date:
2020
American Zeus -The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theater Mogul
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
McFarland Books
Publication Date:
2018
White Ethnicity and the Challenge of Independent Greek Films to Greek Stereotypes in the Global Imaginary
Publication type:
Book Chapter
Published in:
Contemporary Greek Film Cultures from 1990 to the Present
Publication Date:
2017
The Transformation Power of Study Abroad, Its Utility in a ‘Globalized’ Reality and the Promotion of Global Engagement as an Academic Major
Publication type:
Book Chapter
Published in:
Culture & Civilization, volume 7
Publication Date:
2015
Parallel poleis -Towards a theoretical framework of the modern public sphere, civic engagement and the structural advantages of the internet to foster and maintain parallel socio-political institutions
Publication type:
Article
Co-Author(s):
Ted Coopman and Jonathan Tomhave
Published in:
New Media and Society 16:3
Publication Date:
2014
Politics, Media and Youth -Understanding Political Socialization via Video Production in Secondary Schools
Publication type:
Article
Co-Author(s):
Kate Dunsmore
Published in:
Learning, Media, & Technology
Publication Date:
2008
Mediating Commons -Rural Greece
Publication type:
Article
Published in:
New Media and Society
Publication Date:
2008
Logo Logic -The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication
Publication type:
Article
Co-Author(s):
W. Lance Bennett
Published in:
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Publication Date:
2007